Co-Creation and Inclusion to Boost Spain’s Emptying Rural Areas: The RurAll ProjectRegenerative Tourism

14 ago.

By Sandra Campos, tourism consultant, and Pako Rodríguez, head of the tourism area.

(Original publication in Spanish)

Is it possible to promote tourism initiatives that contribute to responsible and inclusive tourism while combating depopulation? The "Inclusive Experiences Against Depopulation" RurAll project, funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU and the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Tourism, aims to bring tourism to any territory inclusively through replicability while also fighting against depopulation.

What is RurAll?

RurAll, or Inclusive Experiences Against Depopulation, is a project within the framework of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism’s first call for Experiencias España, part of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

The project’s goal is to help develop regions as regenerative tourist destinations by replicating positive impact tourism initiatives, using tourism as a tool to combat the depopulation of rural areas.

The project was developed by a consortium of five organizations that complement each other's knowledge and expertise:

Ideas for Change, an innovation consultancy and the consortium coordinator, is primarily responsible for developing the territories through participatory workshops and a proprietary destination analysis methodology.
- Apadrina un Olivo and Sentir el Alto Tajo are the two organizations whose initiatives will be replicated. Both projects, recognized as winner and finalist by the FITURNext Observatory for sustainable tourism at FITUR, are located in rural areas and share a demographic context of depopulation.
- Aethnic, an Association for Sustainable Tourism, is responsible for generating networks, synergies, and governance systems for the relationships and connections created in the project.
- Mem branding, a design and branding agency, aims to develop the visual identities of the five territories and assist in promoting the new experiences created.

Depopulation and Tourism: Some Data

According to UN data, in 2018, 55% of the world's population lived in cities, a figure expected to reach 70% by 2050 (1) . These cities consume 75% of energy resources and emit 80% of the carbon that pollutes the environment (2).

In Spain, rural areas (fewer than 30,000 inhabitants with a population density of less than 100 h/km²) cover 84% of the country’s surface, but only 15.9% of the population resides there (3). This 84% of the territory is known as “Empty Spain”—a term that often carries a connotation of inevitability rather than choice.

Spain is the fourth European country, after Estonia, Finland, and Latvia, with the most municipalities at risk of depopulation. In the most inhospitable regions of the world, such as Mongolia or Finnish Lapland, population densities are around 1.55 h/km² or 1.8-2 h/km², respectively, while in certain enclaves of Spain's Celtiberian Mountains, population densities can be as low as 1 h/km² (4).

This depopulation trend and the concentration of people in cities lead to what is known as “demotanasia,” the slow and silent disappearance of a population from a territory as people emigrate, leaving no generational replacement (5).

However, rural depopulation goes beyond the abandonment of villages. It deteriorates the quality of life for remaining residents, contributes to the abandonment of crops, leading to desertification and soil acidification, neglects fire prevention, and harms the environment.

Inclusion, Accessibility, and Gender Perspective

The RurAll project aims to deepen the development of rural tourist destinations with an inclusive focus. This inclusion extends to accessibility, allowing all people to enjoy tourist experiences regardless of their physical, sensory, or cognitive abilities. This is particularly significant in rural tourism, which currently offers the least accessible and/or adapted options.

The project also promotes gender equality, especially in rural contexts where women’s contributions are invaluable (6). As highlighted by the UN, rural women—who make up a quarter of the world’s population—contribute to their communities' food security, build resilience against climate change, and strengthen local economies. However, gender inequalities and the current economic, social, and technological contexts limit their potential, putting them behind urban women and men (7). The project aims to recognize and promote the value of women’s roles in rural areas as a fundamental component of territorial development.

Depopulating Territories

The rural territories participating in the project share a common characteristic: all suffer from a continuous loss of residents and, therefore, depopulation.

Of the five territories, two are called “origin” territories, where the two experiences will be replicated in the other three “destination” territories.

Origin Territories:

Molina de Aragón - Alto Tajo Region: A region in the province of Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha) spanning 3,000 km². It is characterized by small villages, most of which are depopulated. Currently, many of these villages are uninhabited during the winter.
In one of these villages, Peralejos de la Truchas, the Sentir el Alto Tajo project was born, aiming to bring rural and nature tourism to everyone.
Oliete: A municipality in the province of Teruel (Aragón) with a population of 349 in 2023. Its history is closely linked to agriculture, particularly olive groves, which inspired the Apadrina un Olivo project. This initiative seeks to revitalize unused centennial olive trees as a tourist resource through sponsorship and activities related to olives and olive oil.

Destination Territories:

Sepúlveda: A town in Segovia (Castilla y León) with 990 inhabitants in 2023. It will host the replication of accessibility through the support of Sentir el Alto Tajo.
Estercuel - Monasterio del Olivar: A locality in the province of Teruel, Aragón, near Oliete, with a population of 349 in 2023. The Monasterio del Olivar, located nearby, offers various tourist services. The proximity to Oliete and the similarity of the territories will facilitate the replication of Apadrina un Olivo’s activities.
Chiclana de Segura: A municipality in the northeast of Jaén, Andalusia, with a population of 896 in 2023. This town will also host the replication of Apadrina un Olivo, aiming to foster local economic development and opportunities through tourism.

The Role of Residents: Building Cool Futures

The development of any tourist destination must consider the perspective of the residents, who are the primary recipients of both the positive and negative externalities that tourism can generate. Therefore, the project’s central work is tourist planning from a local perspective through the development of participatory workshops in the five territories.

These workshops included local tourism stakeholders, residents, members of rural development associations, and public administration officials to ensure a broader vision.

The workshops were developed using a proprietary methodology based on a destination analysis, the CARE methodology (Capacity, Access and Accessibility, Resources, and Environment), and a tourist empathy map. These workshops took place over a full day, introducing the concept of regenerative tourism alongside exemplary practices that could serve as inspiration, followed by teamwork with the participants.

The following day, the same participants analyzed the destination’s attributes to develop its identity, which will be provided to the different territories for free use as part of the project.

Each workshop produced two reports: one on the destination’s tourism development and one on brand identity. Additionally, new projects emerged from these workshops, receiving two months of consulting follow-up and training in the Pentagrowth disruptive business design methodology.

Finally, as a result of these workshops and in relation to the capacity of regenerative tourism to develop rural economies, new alliances and associations have emerged in tourism, aiming to boost their territories.

Next Steps

After the participatory workshops for analyzing and diagnosing the territories as tourist destinations and following up on the new projects that emerged, the following steps are planned to achieve the project's objectives:

Recordings: To obtain audiovisual material, the Ideas for Change team and other consortium members will travel to the different territories to capture images and documentary testimonies for later dissemination.
RurAll Network: Following these workshops, we will launch the RurAll experiences network, which will have a website with content to encourage visits to these destinations.
Book: A book will be published, compiling all the documentation, steps, and processes, as well as the audiovisual material. The goal is for this book to serve as a replicability tool for other territories, fostering the exponential growth of tourism’s positive impact.
Final Event: The project will culminate in Sepúlveda, one of the collaborating territories near Madrid, with a final event in September 2024. Some of the project’s main results will be presented at this event, which will include the participation of all partners and collaborating territories, as well as other guests.

“Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan - Funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU”.